The presence of women fund managers in the mutual fund industry continues to be meagre at 8 per cent this year. However, as high as 80 per cent of assets managed by them outperformed peer group average over different time periods as on January 31, 2021.
Out of 376 fund managers in the MF industry, only 30 are women, who manage funds either as primary/secondary managers or have oversight as heads of equity/debt, says Morningstar report on women fund managers in the asset management industry. When they first came out with a report in 2017, there were only 18 women fund managers. This increased to 24 in 2018, 29 in 2019 and 28 in 2020.
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"Currently, the total count of women fund managers has increased from 28 last year to 30. Interestingly, the total number of fund managers saw a healthy increase this year up from 352 managers seen last year. With a meagre 8 per cent representation, women still remain drastically underrepresented among the ranks of mutual fund managers," says the report.
Out of total Rs 30.50 lakh crore asset under management (AUM) in the MF industry as on January 31, 2021, only Rs 4.11 lakh crore is managed by women fund managers. "Over the last few years, while the assets managed by women are on the rise, in percentage terms of the overall industry assets, this number has not been something to boast about," says Morningstar.
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However, within the AUM managed by women, there are some interesting 'bright spots' especially related to fund performance. "Our reports show that of the total open-ended assets managed by women fund managers, 80 per cent of the AUM outperformed the peer group average on a one-year basis, 80 per cent of the AUM outperformed on a three-year basis and 74 per cent of the AUM outperformed on a five-year basis - a feat truly worth commending," says the Morningstar report.
Out of the total open and close end fund assets managed by women (Rs 4.11 lakh crore), approximately Rs 1.77 lakh crore (43 per cent) were fixed-income funds (excluding Money market, Liquid and Overnight Funds), Rs 1.09 lakh crore (26.6 per cent) were money market funds, liquid and overnight funds, Rs 1.03 lakh crore (25.1 per cent) were equity funds, Rs 0.18 lakh crore (4.5 per cent) were allocation funds and the solution and other category cumulated to Rs 0.03 lakh crore (0.7 per cent).
This accounts for 29 per cent of all fixed income assets (excluding money market, liquid and overnight funds), 12 per cent of all money market, liquid and overnight assets, 11 per cent of equity assets, 6 per cent of allocation assets and 11 per cent and 0.2 per cent of solution and other assets, respectively.
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